Wednesday, February 18, 2009

UIL Oral Reading Competition

DISCLAIMER: Before watching the video make sure you have already used the restroom, because if you haven't you may need to after viewing! His two poems this year are: "Nancy Christman Kissed Me" and "I Gotta Go"

In the above video, Jeffrey is competing in the UIL (University Interscholastic League) Oral Reading Competition for 1st Graders. For those who don't know what UIL is, it is this: It is basically like a track meet for academics. Kids compete in different events such as Oral Reading, Mathematics, Art Appreciation, Music Appreciation, Storytelling, Spelling, Listening Skills, Dictionary Skills, etc. etc. And it lasts ALL DAY!

Anyway, a child can start competing when they are in Kindergarten by reading poems. In First Grade they get to read poems as well, but when they get older they can do all that other stuff.

Each school in the district (about 6 area schools) select the top 4 kids from their school to compete in the event. Last year, Whiteface had 4 kids make it to the final round of competition and all four kids placed meaning they were in First, Second, Third, and Fourth. Last year Jeffrey took home the second place medal for his poems that he read.

This year he competed in Levelland (the video above) and took second place in that meet. He also competed in our district meet and was the only Whiteface kid to advance to finals. He took third in that meet.

We are pretty proud of him and we know his little bro will be a competitor when he is in school because every time Jeffrey practiced, Joel was repeating the poems word for word. (Pete and Repeat)